The Water Was Up to My Knees

It was around 2:00 AM when a flash of light woke me and my wife up. A few seconds later, there was a boom that shook the house. I had left my PC running overnight (forgot to powerdown), so I groggily got up and made my way into the office and powered everything down. I walked by the doorwall and heard and saw the wind whipping the trees around. But no rain.... yet.

I fell back asleep for a few hours until 4:30 AM when all sorts of noises woke me up. I got up and saw the heaviest downpour of rain that I could remember.

"Huh." I thought. I inspected the house and everything seemed in order so I went back to bed. As I was snuggling in, I hear "beeeeeeeeep" from the basement. It was my new water detector alarm that I set up next the the sump pump well.

"Oh no." I think. I go downstairs and sure enough, the sump pump well was completely full, about to spill over. I turned off the piercing alarm noise and jiggle the float that was stuck and the sump pump immediately began to run.

But the well was filling up as quickly as the pump could pump it out.

Meanwhile outside I hear this massive downpour of rain, nonstop. I looked over to the window-well and was shocked to see water was SQUIRTING through the seal in an arc down to the concrete floor (the basement is not finished). I looked and saw water gathering up on the other side of the window, like an aquarium. I begin using a squeegee on the floor to move the water over to the sump pump well.

It sort of felt like was mopping the floor of a leaky submarine.

It seemed like everything was under control (thankfully the power was still on!) when my wife came down and told me the street was flooding and the trash containers had tipped over.

Trash Day

This was the first time flooding has occurred on trash day. We go upstairs and look out the front window at the lake that is forming in front of our house. All of the trash cans and containers were tipped over. We saw some garbage bags floating in the water. Not good.

I grab an umbrella (as if that would help) and I go out into the darkness and walk through a wall of water dumping from the sky. We have a large pile of old carpet and padding that was supposed to be picked up the trash collection, now the pile was submerged in water that had spilled over into the grass. I begin moving the soaked carpet and padding up to higher ground and I turn and see my wife right behind me in a poncho (good thinking!) helping me move the material.

I wade into the water to retrieve the trash can that had capsized. It was completely full of trash bags, broken down cardboard Amazon boxes and water. It felt like it was filled with bricks! I managed to get it upright and wheeled it on to the driveway. I considered tipping it to get the water out, but in the dark and rain, I thought better of it.

After my wife and I recovered all of our trash, we came into the garage for some shelter. Both of us were drenched. It was dark, but occasionally a flash of lightning would illuminate everything and we could see just how deep the flooding actually got.

Adventure Over, Right?

We came in, grabbed some towels to dry off, changed into dry cloths and assessed the situation. It's almost 6 AM, we're both exhausted, it's dark and continuing to rain. I decide to check on the pump to see if it caught up yet. By the time I got down there, the well was half-way empty. "Oh good, maybe I can get some sleep!" I made a mental note to put the moisture detector back, just in case the float malfunctioned again and I continued squeegeeing the puddles of water to the well.

I came upstairs about 6:30 AM and it's beginning to become light outside. It's still raining, but not nearly so hard and the thunder and lightning were farther away. It's over! Now what?

"Let's have breakfast." So we did, my wife cooked up a nice breakfast, complete with beef bacon and eggs, what a treat! The sun had come up and the rain had stopped, so we went back outside to assess the situation. The water flooded the entire street and had flooded the grass past the sidewalk. Our neighbor's trash cans were still overturned and there was garbage floating in the water, so I stepped out into the "lake" and was surprised by how deep it was.

After retrieving all the neighbor's garbage and setting the garbage cans upright, moving them to higher ground, we noticed a truck driving waaaaay too fast down the street. We thought they must intend to slow down before reaching the river, but no, they PLOWED through the water full speed. SPLASH! Who would do that? Drive like a maniac through the water so early in the morning? The truck made a sharp right and pulled into our neighbor's driveway and got out. IT WAS MY NEIGHBOR and his girlfriend. OH BOY. My wife and I stood there in total shock over the complete recklessness. And why were they returning home so early in the morning?

We turned around and went back inside. We were so tired. I was sitting on the couch with my eyes drooping and she suggested maybe a nap until the children woke up. Sounded good to me. I set my phone timer for one hour and a half. I fell asleep almost instantly, even after breakfast and a cup of coffee.

But Wait, There's More

I woke up to the sound of my phone alarm, my children were up and there was much activity in the house. I wondered how the trash collection crew would handle all this water! As I was pondering this, we heard the sound of the trash collection truck off in the distance. The water seemed just as high as when we last saw it. I figured I should get the water out of my trash bin, so I tipped it over (gently) into the grass and a ton of water came gushing out. And maggots. Squirmy little white maggots swimming in the trash water. Uhg. One landed on my bear foot and I did my best not to make a fuss about it. But trust me, it was disgusting.

I tipped the trash bin back up and it wasn't nearly as heavy anymore. It was still a lake in front of the house and we could still hear the big truck coming. It's usually only our corner of the neighborhood that floods like this. We decided to move our bin down the street to where the water began (down by the river's edge). We also decided to move our big pile of wet carpet and padding down where the collectors could easily access it.

My other neighbor is my dad. He came out to see what was going on and came over to help us move the sopping wet carpet and saturated padding. Our children also came out to see what we were doing. We saw the big red garbage truck on our street, making their way to where we were. When they got to us, they were surprised to see us throwing carpet and padding and wet cardboard boxes into the truck. The driver came out, assuring us we didn't have to do this, so I obediently dropped the carpet I had in my hand, while my wife continued putting it in the truck.
One of the assistants began cracking up. He thought it was hilarious that my wife would help load up the truck while I dropped it at my feet.

The truck drove on into the water without issue and the collectors got their feet soaked loading up the truck in a foot or two of water. But they were cheerful, still laughing at what they had seen, seven people standing patiently by a pile of garbage waiting for them.

Mental Note

We go back inside, figuring the adventure is pretty much over. Everyone is up, the rain had stopped, the water was slowly receding. The basement is dry, everything is good.

I sit down and one of my children said excitedly "The basement is full of water!" No, it couldn't be full of water, last I checked it was dry and besides, I didn't hear the moisture detector go off.

My daughter is not known for making up stories. We'd better check.

We go into the basement and my daughters words were true. The basement had about an inch or two of water. WHY didn't I hear the moisture detector????

I splashed over to the sump pump well and found the moisture detector with the sensor. It was wrapped up ready to be put back in place. Then I remembered:

I made a mental note to put the moisture detector back, just in case the float malfunctioned again

Oh. My mental note had failed me, I did not put the moisture detector back. Ugh. Back to the Squeegie. The submarine had sprung a leak.

Finding the Blessings

I got the pump going and began squeeging again. This time the whole basement area. I am so thankful the power didn't go out. After about twenty minutes of squeegeeing and pumping, most of the water was out of the basement. It's clean water (not sewage), so grateful for these factors.

As "not fun" as all of this is, there is so much to be grateful for. Everyone has trials to endure and really this wasn't all that bad. Some stories we hear will make anyone grateful for their little issues they deal with.

I'm grateful to have a comfortable dry house, while it stormed outside.
I'm grateful to have a basement (many homes do not)
I'm grateful everyone in my family is safe and healthy.
I'm grateful that throughout this experience, nobody got angry.
I'm grateful that the power continued and never went out.
I'm grateful for a functioning sump pump that removed all the water.
I'm grateful that the trash collectors were cheerful.
I'm grateful that the water receded (it was gone by the afternoon).
I'm grateful that nothing critical was destroyed by the basement flooding.
I'm grateful to have a moisture detector (when it's used properly).

I'm Grateful I can Share this Story

I didn't snap many photos of the events, not exactly my first priority. But it was fun to recount the events. Recalling this morning's events has been an interesting review of an interesting day.

Have you ever had a flooding story like this?